Just five countries have at least 30% senior women executives

As the ‘Pledge For Parity’ sponsor for International Women’s Day (IWD) 2016, EY says it has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerating women’s advancement. EY has called for individuals and companies to move from talk to purposeful action in achieving gender parity.

International Women's Day (8th March) is a day celebrating globally the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Recent data from EY & The Peterson Institute for International Economics has revealed that companies in just five countries have at least 30% senior women executives, with only Norway exceeding the 30% mark for women on company boards. The research also shows that companies with at least 30% women in leadership can achieve up to a 6% increase in net margin.

In the study, the research focused on data from almost 22,000 publicly traded firms across 91 countries. It found that Bulgaria (37%), Latvia (36%), Philippines (33%), Slovenia (33%) and Romania (32%) have made the most progress toward gender parity in business with the percentage of female executives. For having the most women-on-boards, the top five countries are Norway (40%), Latvia (25%), Italy (24%), Finland (23%) and Bulgaria (22%).

While gender parity in business varies widely across the globe, the study found that most countries are still far below the 30% threshold for women CEOs, women on boards and women executives, with the world’s largest economies – United States, China and Japan – not reaching the top ten for any category.

Mark A. Weinberger, EY’s global chairman & CEO, commented, “Companies that advance women into leadership roles are going to have the upper hand, with more engaged workforces, stronger cultures and improved economic performance. We know that gender-balanced companies achieve better results. As business leaders we need to ask ourselves: Have we made enough progress? Are we helping enough women find their way into leadership roles in order to make our businesses better?”

EY has developed a series of IWD pledges, which it says arose after its own experience and research conducted on what helps most to close the gender gap. EY claims the pledges are designed to provide people with practical steps they can take as individuals and within their organisations to advance women in business and the wider community. Pledges can be made on the IWD website. Once people take a ‘Pledge For Parity’, EY and IWD encourage them to inspire others by sharing their pledge on social media using the hashtags #PledgeForParity and #IWD2016.

Uschi Schreiber, EY’s global vice chair – markets and chair of global accounts committee, said, "The current direction and state of gender parity and diversity across all levels of business needs to be changed. At a time where business and government face unprecedented challenges due to technology and disruption, having diverse leadership and management is a necessary and critical tool to survive today. We need our best talent from all areas to bring additional perspectives to complex decision making - now more than ever."

EY seeks to help individuals and organisations tackle gender inequality in the workplace, through its Women. Fast forward platform. The platform is designed as an accelerator to inspire individuals to put gender on their agendas and help organisations take the concrete steps needed to advance women in the workplace.